British T.V drama Cast Off's

Select one character from a British T.V drama and explain how they are a "stereotypical" representation of your area of study.

My area of study was disability. I studied how disabled people in the media are portrayed and presented to those who are without disability. In doing this I studied five main areas and how the disabled character I was studying was presented in these areas. I was looking at the character Dan from the British T.V drama Cast Offs.

Firstly I am going to start with the clothing he is wearing. Previously when I studied disability I noted that often disabled people in T.V shows are shown to be wearing what I called "house wear" this is comfortable clothing that is easy to wear. By this I mean they were never really shown to be wearing smart outfits like say, businessmen do. Dan is wears similar items to what I would describe as a casual look. He wears clothes such as jeans with hole in them and a hooded top. This is what I wear when I am at home "chilling." (Accept less of the holed jeans because frankly, not so cool.) Dan's disability is that he is in a wheelchair after damage done to his back. Now he may choose these items of clothing because they are more comfortable to sit in.

I move onto then the setting of the show. This however doesn't have much to do with the fact he is disabled and doesn't "stereotypically" present anything which people would relate to being disabled. Thinking back to what I found when I researched this there isn't anything in the show that would suggest that they live in rundown houses or squalid living places like disabled people are presented to live in in the media.

Moving on, when Dan is on camera he is often filmed from a far of distance and he in nearly every shot some aspect of him being disabled is shown.
In one shot he is shown looking into the mirror and a whole scene is shot from the reflections in the mirror. This seems to me to indicate him reflecting on his disability and even to reiterate that Dan is disabled by showing mainly wheelchair.

His personality trait shows many different angles of him. Both stereotypical and not stereotypical. Understandably he seems to be struggling with his new found disability, however this isn't focusing on stereotypes.
One stereotype that I did notice however is that his parents still treat him like a child. Especially when his dad says "Bed time son" and Dan replies "you don't tell me my bed time anymore" This is more understandable if I hadn't failed to mention he is in fact 19.
Next he seems to be shown as being lonely. He is part of a basketball team and is constantly trying to earn their respect but is lacking the self confidence to work as part of the team, this lacking of self confidence is stereotypical because often disabled people have more charisma than many able bodied people.

Finally the plot is a Big Brother style plot, with six disabled people having to cooperate and show the outside that they can function properly. They are stranded on a island together. When Dan is stranded he is shown struggling to make his way up the beach. This the last stereotype I'm going to pick up on. Yes it would be hard for a person in a wheel chair to wheel over sand and up sand dunes but it isn't this fact I'm picking up on, it is the fact that he was shown struggling, suggesting disabled people struggle.